


Time Stops

by DawnTheVamp



Series: Race The Clock [2]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Lots of sulking, More characters to be added, More tags too, Paralysis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-07-15 02:43:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7203038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnTheVamp/pseuds/DawnTheVamp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Tick-Tock.<br/>Leo's new disability has proved to be a challenge for the team to deal with, especially when it turns out that not only could it be permanent but just in time for Karai to make an appearance. And it's not a pleasant one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Authors Note

~~I AM BACK! Well, maybe… I don’t know… Honestly I’m super stressed with exams right now and I got loads of art commissions due soon but I really needed a break and writing always seemed to help me before. I currently have writers block on my other story but I’m gonna try something new with this one. I have a rough plan, yet I have no clue how I want it to end, if I’ll have it go into another story, how long it’ll be etc. So I’m just gonna type and then publish something once I think it’s long enough to be a chapter ^.^ I won’t have a set time to update as deadlines are my worst enemy right now. Anyway I know Tick-Tock was popular so I’m hoping this is too. Enjoy the sequel once I get the first chapter out!~~   
~~~Dawneh~~

~~~~First chapter is now done! Go enjoy ^.^

~Dawneh


	2. Hope to be Shattered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place straight after the event of Tick-Tock. Leo's beginning to find ways to cope with his new disability when Donnie thinks it's a good idea to give him false hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *smacks down mountains of paper with research on paralysis and many other things in this chapter* So here it is! Chapter 1 of Time Stops, the long awaited sequel to Tick-Tock! So much research… I’ve never actually written about a character with paralysis, although making an OC with paralysis would be awesome. Looking back at the last chapter of Tick-Tock I’ve only just realised how much my writing has improved O.o What is GCSE English doing to me? Anyway I hope this was worth the wait! Also like in Tick-Tock, Raph is gonna keep the accent although I’m a little out of practise with writing it. Enjoy!  
> ~Dawneh

Once the initial shock of the news had passed, Donnie ushered his immediate younger and older brother from the lab along with their father. Leo had gone practically white once he found out and Donnie wasn’t going to object to an excuse that would allow him to avoid most of his family now. They’d certainly have a lot of questions for him.

After shutting the lab doors, Donnie turned towards Leo and felt his heart sink at the lost expression on his brother’s face as Leo stared down at his legs, one hand hovering over them like touching them would only make them worse, while his other hand had wrapped around his plastron to trace parts of the crack on his carapace with his fingertips. Donnie just sighed as he wheeled his chair over to Leo and sat down in front of his brother.

When this didn’t spark any sort of reaction from Leo, Donnie tried clearing his throat. Nothing. “Leo?” He then reached out to pull Leo’s hand away from his carapace. “Hey look at me.”

Finally, Leo glanced up at him, his expression never changing. Without his mask or gear on, Leo looked bare enough. But his expression seemed to turn him into a stranger.

“I’m sorry this happened Leo. I really am… I wish I could promise I’ll fix this but paralysis is something I’ve never worked with or even thought to read about. It’s hard to work with and in the vast majority of cases, ones like yours are permanent…” Donnie surprised himself by managing to keep it together as he talked, his heart sinking lower.

“Vast majority,” Leo muttered, “But not all cases, right?”

The small bit of hope Donnie saw spark in Leo’s eyes was enough for him to keep his mouth shut. He wanted to tell Leo no, that he was positive that Leo would be paralysed for the rest of his life, but… If Leo thought he had a slim chance of recovering, even if it was a one in billions, he’d still act like the same old Leo they knew and loved. Otherwise he knew Leo would become distant just because he’d believe he somehow failed them. Donnie just couldn’t bring himself to tell Leo the truth.

“Yeah. Sometimes someone will make a recovery within a few weeks, maybe a month or two.” _Lies._

Leo gave him a smile, a genuine, hopeful smile. “Then what am I doing sitting around? Gotta start trying to walk, right?”

Donnie sighed, “Leo, your body just recovered from a disease that had you technically in a coma, you should rest first.”

“Rest? Come on Donnie! The last thing I want to do is rest right now. If I rest it could take longer for my legs to heal.” Leo had begun slowly trying to slide himself off the cot, even though it seemed difficult. He was stopped by Donnie’s hand.

Donnie chuckled at Leo’s enthusiasm. “At least let Raph help you out. You’ve been unconscious for some time now so your legs will be weak anyway, let alone with potential paralysis on top of that.” _Certain, not potential._ Donnie then unlocked the lab door to find the rest of his family still waiting on the other side. “Hey Raph, Leo wants a hand.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, their hot-headed brother was pushing past him to get to Leo. “What’d ya need help wit’, Leo?”

Leo had already shuffled himself to the end of the cot, hanging his still senseless legs off the edge. “With walking. Come on, what else was I going to ask?” Leo said with his usual humour.

Raph paused for a moment as he looked back over his shoulder at Donnie with an imaginary eyebrow raised. When all Donnie did was look away, Raph had the feeling that whatever he’d said to Leo was just to keep his older brother’s spirits up. All it meant was that Leo would fall further once the truth hit him.

“Alright then Fearless, let’s getcha up an’ walkin’.” Raph replied with as much enthusiasm as he could muster right now. It was easier though when he compared this Leo to the one he’d seen minutes ago. Pale, distant, broken. He didn’t want to see his brother like that again.

Although it seemed this task was going to be harder than expected. At first, Raph wrapped one arm around Leo’s carapace while being careful to avoid the crack as his other arm supported the back of Leo’s thighs, practically carrying him. This all seemed fine and Leo then asked to only have one support. Tightening his grip on Leo’s carapace, Raph reluctantly removed his arm supporting Leo’s thighs. His eldest brother would have hit the floor if Raph hadn’t had such a tight grip on him.

From across the room, the rest of the family silently watched Leo’s attempts to stand. It was painful to watch, seeing the member of the family that had been so strong now unable to even stand without someone taking literally all his weight.

Splinter gently lay a paw on Donnie’s shoulder. “My son,” He kept his voice low. “I understand that what you are doing is to make Leonardo feel better, yet I believe it is not doing you any good to keep this secret.”

“Hai sensei, but just look at him. If he knew the truth… We might lose him. I’ll tell him when I have a solution that I know will work.” Donnie frowned at his own words. Paralysis was new to him, he’d done what little research on it that he could manage between caring for his older brothers and finding a cure for the disease that had been slowly eating away at them at the time. Now he could do much more in one day, but it would still take time.

Splinter only sighed, “Then I suggest you find one quickly. Leonardo may not be a genius like you, but he is not stupid either. He will work it out soon enough.” Donnie could only nod at this as he felt Splinter give his shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. “I understand this is not easy, Donatello. But know that you have, and will always, make me proud. Even if you do not find a solution to this.”

* * *

 

And Splinter was never wrong. It took Leo a few days of constant falls and bumps, but it seemed to slowly dawn on him that he wasn’t getting better.

They’d settled into a habit which was working for now, but it was slowly beginning to get strenuous for Raph. He turned out to be the only one able to carry Leo around the lair without the high chance of something going wrong. While both Donnie and Mikey were able to carry Leo, he was too heavy for them to walk a distance, such as from his room to the kitchen at the other side of the lair. As they had discovered, Donnie could make it out of Leo’s room, down the steps and at a push, down into the pit to place Leo on the couch. Mikey generally gave up after a step and asked Raph to take over.

So Raph had become Leo’s apparent wheelchair for now, despite how much Leo disliked it. Donnie wasn’t a fan of this method either, and he’d take over carrying Leo if he could. Raph was still recovering after all, and the last thing they needed was more injuries. Although he had to admit, Donnie had come to find it amusing when Raph had to forcefully carry Leo somewhere because their eldest brother was insisting he could walk. Kind of like now, only Donnie had a feeling this wasn’t going to end so well.

Earlier this morning, Donnie had finally given Raph the go ahead to start training again. Leo wasn’t happy he couldn’t join in. For the past hour, Leo had been sat against a wall in the dojo as Raph trained, pointing out whatever flaws he could fine. Their constant bickering was easily finding its way into Donnie’s lab.

“Leo! For tha last time, I know how ta use my own damn sai!”

“But it’d be more effective if you held it slightly further down the handle! Then you’d have more accuracy when you land.”

“That may be tha case wit’ your katanas, but it ain’t wit’ my sai. Now back off!”

Donnie sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It was a miracle he hadn’t snapped at the two already, or shut his lab door. He’d thought about doing that many times, yet at the same time if he did shut the door, he might not hear if something went wrong. Raph may be strong, but being down for so long would have affected his abilities and knowing their short-tempered brother, he wasn’t going to go easy on himself.

As for Leo, Donnie was doing his best to stay out of his eldest brother’s way now. It was obvious Leo had worked out that his paralysis was most likely permanent and that Donnie had lied. That would be the worst part, when Leo confronted him about how he lied. Leo may be understanding and he would probably let Donnie off if he said it was just to keep his hopes up and stop him from pushing them all away, yet Donnie knew that at the same time Leo would then do exactly that. He’d stay in his room and avoid them all with nothing else to do.

So, Donnie had his mind set on helping him. He may not be able to fix their brother’s paralysis but he could certainly help it. His main issue however, was trying to get the info from Leo that he needed to make this work. That was especially hard when you had been working hard to avoid Leo, and he knew it. There was no way this was going to be easy. Not like he had expected it to be.

Sighing, Donnie shoved himself away from his desk and made his way towards the door. If there was any time to confront Leo about this, it would be better now when at least one of his brothers was around rather than alone. He just hoped Raph would have his back on this and not take Leo’s side if he argued back or tried to just ignore him.

The walk from his lab door to the dojo seemed like the longest walk of his life and he constantly paused. Did he really need this information? Leo was similar to them, surely he could just work out an average and make that work?

_No, these have to be accurate._ He told himself, letting out a long breath before he stepped into the dojo.

Raph was leaning against the opposite wall to Leo. It seemed the two had another argument over the time it took for Donnie to get here, yet he turned to Donnie once he walked in. “Hey Donnie, could ya please tell fearless here that I don’t need him makin’ comments on everythin’ I do.”

Leo sighed, looking bored out of his mind. “I’m only trying to help Raph, you don’t have to follow my advice.”

“Advice? Yeah right, orders more like.”

Donnie took a deep breath, now realising that this was a horrible idea while they were like this. “While I’d love to solve your little dispute, I actually just need some stuff from Leo.”

This brought a frown from Leo. “Okay… Like what?”

“Well… How long do you think you could hold up your body weight at a time with just your arms?”

Leo paused, either actually thinking about the question or wondering why Donnie was asking. “I’m… Not sure. It’s not exactly something I’ve bothered to measure.”

Raph smiled. “Then we’ll find out for ya. If I support yer legs, we can see how long ya can stay on yer hands.”

Donnie smiled back, it seemed they were willing to go along with his weird questions. It took them a bit of trial and error, but eventually they were able to get Leo standing on his hands at the centre of a mat with Raph only keeping his legs up without taking any of their weight. Donnie because to count as the seconds passed.

Despite how long he’d been down, Leo only started straining at 3 minutes and 26 seconds. He’d just reached 5 minutes when his arms and Raph had to stop him landing on his head but pushing him forward to land on his shell. “Okay, 5 minutes. Great. Just lie down for a bit Leo, let your arms rest. The rest of the stuff I need I just need you to lie still for.”

Leo glanced up at Raph with a questioning look as Donnie knelt down and brought a tape measure from his belt, lying it against his legs. Raph only shrugged then spun his finger by the side of his head. Leo couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped then. Yep, sometimes they really did think Donnie had lost his mind.

Less than a minute later and Donnie had jumped back up, having a small piece of paper and pencil in his hand that Leo swore wasn’t there before. Or in his belt.

“Okay, all done. Thanks Leo. And Raph, I suggest you go rest. We don’t want you pushing yourself too hard.”

Raph only rolled his eyes. “Yes, mother.”

Donnie only smiled and walked out, looking down at his paper. Maybe Leo wasn’t as far from recovery as he thought he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know how this was ^.^ As I've said before, I won't be making an update time, I'll just update when I feel I have something long enough to be a chapter (This one was 4 pages, so I'll aim for around that) and I just really hope I haven't lost any of the amazing people who helped me get through Tick-Tock!


	3. Quick update!

Hi all!

So sorry this isn't a chapter but I need to get this out. I've now got a blog on tumblr completely for all my fanfic on here! You'll be able to see when the next chapter is coming out, get previews of more stories and ask me anything you like! Messages and asks make me the happiest person alive ^.^

Link: http://dtvfanficblog.tumblr.com

See ya all there!

Dawn.


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